1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wire handling grippers and more especially to an apparatus and process for manufacturing electrical cable bundles using these grippers. The present invention relates to the automatic manufacturing of "simple" electrical bundles. The term "simple" bundles is taken to mean electrical bundles comprising about ten electrical components of differing types, into which the ends of wire sections are inserted; it also includes a maximum of approximately twenty components per bundle. Moreover, the present invention applies more specifically to cable bundles comprising electrical components individually having a relatively limited number of openings, and more specifically to cable bundles comprising components in which the openings are arranged less than in three rows.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Different processes and apparatuses involved in the manufacturing of electrical cable bundles are already known.
Patent application FR 2 636 494 (RICARD) describes a process and apparatuses designed to insert electrical wire ends into components. According to this document, the components are fitted on a pallet which can move along two rectangular axes. An insertion head which confronts the pallet, grips insertion gripper devices in which the wire ends are held. The insertion grippers are adapted to suit the shape of the crimped terminal on the wire end. Patent application EP 302 804 (RICARD) also describes a process and apparatuses for crimping wire ends onto connections. According to this document the wire ends are held by grippers conveyed along carrier strips aligned with one another, and are transferred from a first carrier strip to a second carrier strip by a manipulator arm fitted with at least one gripper device.
Patent application EP 305 307 describes grippers fitted on automatic cable-making machine carrier strips which are designed to hold one or several wires. The grippers comprise two pairs of claws separated by an intermediate space in which a piston is pushed towards the tip of the gripper by a spring.
The general problem not addressed by any of these patented processes or devices is to provide a process and apparatus for manufacturing electrical cable bundles from wire sections which have ends that have been previously prepared and/or stripped. At present, there is no known process nor apparatus for manufacturing electrical cable bundles that will accommodate industrial implementation. The processes and apparatuses described in application FR 2 636 494 have a certain number of inconveniences, the main one being that the machine described therein is bulky and complex. Further, the process described in this document involves repeated handling of the wire sections as well as complex movements of the wire ends and the components, into which the wire ends are to be inserted.
Moreover, documents EP 302 804 end EP 305 307 do not describe actual processes and apparatuses which allow insertion of the wire ends, and hence, the manufacturing of electrical cable bundles.